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Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Nashville is Talking

Posted by
Gen. JC Christian, Patriot

I don't have time to respond in whole to Aunt B's post (Misogyny? Are you kidding me?), but I think it's important to quote this part of it:

So, let me tell you a little bit about life on the ground here in Tennessee. Here, we liberal bloggers are outnumbered by conservative bloggers by about six to one, I’d guess. Here, there are maybe a dozen feminist bloggers throughout the whole state and a handful, at best, bloggers who blog for immigrant rights.

NiT is the one platform we have to reach a larger readership, to try to influence policy.

If we lose Brittney, we lose the one prominent liberal feminist voice in the state being paid by a news outlet. We lose our gathering place, we lose our rallying place. WKRN is an extremely conservative station. If they don’t have Brittney, I don’t see any reason for them to keep NiT.

Your behavior threatens to take that from us–again such arrogance.Brittany screwed up posting that vile crap without comment, but apparently, she did so for it's ironic value. I, of all people, understand how hard it is to pull that off successfully. She blew it. She should acknowledge that and apologize to everyone who cared about Steve.

The Six Meat Buffet guy is another story. He's not worth linking to, and inasmuch as he isn't representing a network affiliate or his place of employment, I don't think it's proper to contact his employer. NiT, however, shouldn't be reposting his crap without comment and they certainly shouldn't be running his feed.

I apologize for putting this post together quickly. There's a lot more I want to say, but that will have to wait.

NiT, however, shouldn't be reposting his crap without comment and they certainly shouldn't be running his feed.

Six Meat Buffet is a Nashville area blog. Smantix is a Nashville blogger.

NIT is a regional blog aggregator and blog commentary site.

I am at loss as to your conviction why NIT "shouldn't" be linked to a Nashville area blog's feed, if the Nashville area blogger has not objected to being linked.

With all due respect, to read around here and your communications at NIT, it appears you consider yourself a liberal, but that kind of conviction sure does look like a conservative (and not only that but a "Religious Right" conservative) point of view to me rather than a liberal point of view. And honestly, I don't see how you could possible argue that.

I'm not sure I get what you mean. Are you referring to Smantix as Mr. X and the General as a wannabePrick? I'm just curious.

Lynnster:

You can spin this stuff any which way you'd like. Here's the deal. What she did in putting that crap up the way she did is seriously unprofessional. It doesn't matter how many of her "regulars" know what she's doing--casual readers who see an inflammatory, demeaning and disrespectful quote, under a sarcastic headline (with no further exposition on the part of the "aggregator") WILL react exactly as they did.

Brittney's explanation (echoed by others) that she seriously disagrees with the individual who wrote the original comment is insufficient. My guess is that she was having a little fun, putting something racy up on the site, to provoke a reaction. That's okay, as long as you can take the heat.

As to the assertions that the people who are protesting about what was said about Steve are the same as those who said terrible things about Jerry Falwell--some are, some aren't (full disclosure: imo, Jerry Falwell was a snake oil selling pos that lived far too long and did a great deal of harm--good riddance to him). Steve Gilliard was hardly a household name. He was not a glib telegenic spokesman. He was a guy, much loved by a fair number of people, who worked ceaselessly to expose the inequities of society and the crimes of the current WH Administration.

I hardly think the General is a liberal. He is a progressive. I dont' think he is interested in making nice with the fucking rats on the right who use the wedges of race, religion, militarism and class to splinter this countries electorate in order to retain their grip on power. Nor do I think he is interested in joining with the centripologists who say that the only way to save America is to become more like our political enemies.

If you folks down there in Nashville need a forum, start a blog or start a shitload of blogs. Say what you mean, mean what you say--and if you say it in a mean way be prepared for the shit-storm.

Sheriffruitfly:

I get what you're saying but I don't get whether you think it's okay or if we should maybe, like, stop putting up with it. I bite my tongue more often than I'd like to about all sorts of political views, but racism is the single 'ism that causes the greatest amount of trouble. We really need to stop saying, "soon" and start saying "now."

"I get what you're saying but I don't get whether you think it's okay or if we should maybe, like, stop putting up with it."

LOL! By all means *stop*. I mostly just meant to point out the biggest thing that allows it to continue: white folks pretending to be surprised each and every time white folks do something racist. As long as it's new the first time, EVERY time is the first time.

I'm not quite sure what this is all about as I've been out of town for a while. But I am a Nashville blogger and I can say that Brittney has been a tremendous asset to the local blogosphere.

WKRN has a brand new general manager, Gwen Kinsey, and there have been concerns that Kinsey will dismantle NiT, since it was a "pet project" of her predecessor. I'd hate to see Brittney given the boot, as it most likely will be the excuse WKRN needs to fold NiT.

Lynnster, and Brittney if you're reading, what you haven't added to your explanation is a measurement of the vileness of the piece. You obviously don't find it that vile - I doubt you would have simply acted as an "agregator" for something equally vile about someone you knew.

Do you at NIT honestly just post for your friends? Do you want to get new readers?

Are you satirically challenged? It's the only thing I can come with. Yes, it takes a moment, but most here realize quickly that the General is having fun. Please, the next time you come for a visit, don't forget you sense of humor. You're stay should be far more enjoyable.

Lynnster, and Brittney if you're reading, what you haven't added to your explanation is a measurement of the vileness of the piece. You obviously don't find it that vile - I doubt you would have simply acted as an "agregator" for something equally vile about someone you knew.

Oh, I find him vile all right. Disgustingly so, as do the majority of regular participants at NIT. Smantix has few friends in the regional blogging community and is probably one of the few NIT bloggers who I can actually say doesn't really have much of any respect at all from most of the community. Certainly not the majority.

And yet again, with a little reading and a little education before going off half cocked with all limbs swinging, would have easily been divined.

But he is STIILL a Nashville-area blog and NIT is still a Nashville area blogging community, blogging commentary blog, and with an automatic blog aggregator. He has every right to be there as any other blog in Tennessee and most especially in the metropolitan Nashville area.

Two very sad things have come out of this day. First, the fact that the drama that originated from here has now resulted in who knows how many hundreds or thousands of links all over the Internet that people have reposted to Smantix's post and blog. Including some people who are going around claiming outrage but they're STILL POSTING THE LINK.

NIT is not small but we're not Instapundit or Fark. And if the visitors last night had listened to the people who were trying to explain that Brittney's caption was sarcasm and all this drama had not sprung forth, the links to that vile and disgusting post would have eventually gotten pushed further and further down in the search engines until it had mostly evaporated. Certainly not page 1 or 2 of most search engines.

Now so many people have posted the link all over - including people who are still expressing outrage as last night - the post that started this whole thing is going to be a front page, top search engine result forever.

It would have all but died and disappeared as it should have, but no - thanks to all this drama, it's now propagated all over the Internet and Smantix's post will likely now never evaporate as it otherwise would have, and should have.

And the other really sad thing is some of the Six Meat Buffet people themselves - who I can safely say that collectively, the majority of the NIT community despises and always has, and they hate us too (and it's such a well known fact that I've even seen national, non-Tennessee, non-involved blogs comment on that very thing today) - some of those Six Meaters have said some classy things today about the situation that were worthy of respect.

As opposed to over here where "oh, I was just criticizing the way Brittney presented it" is apparently supposed to be a rational and reasonable excuse for trying to get someone fired from their job or that same person now being jobless because they quit, sick and tired of it all? Because you felt a wave of criticism about a headline someone wrote somewhere that you don't even generally participate? That makes it all okay? "Oh, I just felt the need to criticize" is a rational and reasonable excuse to complain to someone's boss and a site's advertisers, rather than taking up a discussion about the criticism with those involved?

I know some people that would say that's kind of a sissy thing to do and the sissy's way out. I'm not saying it, but I know some people that would.

I keep reading places today where people I respect a great deal apparently have known of and had some respected for JG for some time. I generally have faith in those folks' opinions, but I'm finding it pretty sad that "the need to criticize" someone else's writing on the Internet is worthy of the threat of someone's job. It just doesn't add up.

Please, the next time you come for a visit, don't forget you sense of humor. You're stay should be far more enjoyable.

Thanks, but not really interested. Anyone involved with NIT will tell you I am about the most apolitical blogger on the blogroll, and this type site is not of any interest to me. My sense of humor is fine, but not today. I'm sorry, but I just don't find much amusing in intentionally trying to get someone fired from their job for doing their job, nor creating a bunch of drama that has only served to make sure the very post you're all so upset about being seen by people, evaporate and fall further and further in the archives and for the most part, disappear. As it should have. Now it'll be in front page search results for god only knows how long.